The central focus of this paper is to address the magnitudes of and changes in four central components of teacher goal orientation (learning, performance approach, performance avoidance and work avoidance goal orientation) among prospective teachers. The findings reported here were gathered with a sample of 130 teacher trainees who responded to questionnaires at five measuring points over the course of the two years pre-service training which comprise the second phase of teacher education (“Referendariat”). Differential magnitudes and changes in teacher trainees’ goal orientations were analyzed using a hierarchical linear modeling approach. Cluster analyses were able to identify three typical growth trajectory patterns in goal orientation which were differentially associated with achievement levels at the end of the second phase of teacher education, stress experiences, attitudes concerning help seeking, as well as dropout tendencies.

Keywords
Goal orientations, Teacher trainees, Teacher education, Longitudinal study, Hierarchical linear modeling